Mapping the electron–electron interaction in gas phase C₆₀

Abstract

We present a theory for studying the details of the screened electron–electron interaction in fullerenes by means of the coincident electron emission upon charged particle impact. The cross sections for this process are expressed in terms of the screened electron–electron interaction and evaluated within the random-phase approximation. We performed full quantum mechanical calculations for the cross sections and obtained fair agreement with available experiments. Furthermore, we present theoretical angular and energy-resolved cross sections to underline the wealth of information that can be gained by future experiments.